About Joris,
ARTIST & TEACHER
As a self-taught professional, I honor the magic of life at work..
For 15 years I taught African percussion. During this time I practiced music with children and music therapy. I trained with Daniel and Marie Perret for 16 years, with whom I learned music therapy and spiritual healing. As of now, I am currently studying Family Constellation Therapy.
I started creating Kamalengonis in 2003, at first for myself and then for some friends. The circle kept growing: in 2012 I started up the Ngoni House to share this universe with even more people.
In 2008 I had the chance to meet Abou Diarra during his first trip to France. It was an eye-opening experience for me, I learned a lot about the traditional way of playing Kamalengonis. Up until this moment in time, I had played intuitively. Encouraged by this meeting, my creations also evolved; I was now making instruments that could be played entirely in the West African tradition. After having studied this instrument in a traditional fashion, I was able to voyage even further towards music that exists inside myself.
Seeings as I was purely self-taught, I started to reach out to other luthiers in order to further my understanding in how musical instruments work. I was able to exchange with Gweltas Simon, a luthier had many things to teach, and was very experienced in the creation of kamalengonis.
My approach to playing music and creating instruments is essentially intuitive, enriched by 15 years of creating. The material used is variable, the nature of each element makes it so I am constantly evolving my practice.